1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of fixtures and more specifically, those fixtures utilized to bend pieces of wood.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of articles utilize bent pieces of wood. For example, furniture including chairs may be designed to include a curved or bent wooden pole extending along the back of the furniture or chair. Since it is difficult to obtain a sufficient quantity of uniformly configured wooden trees in the natural state, it is the custom to harvest trees and to then bend the trees into the desired configuration forming the poles.
In the event the harvested wooden tree has an insect such as a beetle living therein, then eventually the bark may loosen relative to the main body of the tree since the beetle will bore into the tree. Of particular nuisance is the powder post beetle which attacks and lives within hickory trees. Beetle eggs typically will not hatch except during the warm or growing season. As a result, it has been the custom to harvest the trees during the winter when the trees are in a dormant state. Trees harvested during the dormant state are dry and brittle requiring the trees to first be subjected to heat thereby destroying any beetle eggs, and then soaked in water thereby increasing the flexibility of the trees and allowing the trees to be bent to the desired configuration. Next it is the practice to heat the trees in the bent configuration while wet setting the final configuration. Harvesting of the trees during the warm growing season has been avoided due to the fear that hatched beetles would attack the trees after the trees are harvested and dead but before heating and bending of the trees to the desired configuration. As a result, the business of harvesting and bending trees has been cyclical occurring during the winter and not during the warm growing season. I have discovered that trees can be harvested during the growing season while in the green state and bent to the desired configuration so long as the trees are bent soon after harvesting while the trees are still green and thus before the eggs are hatched. Since the trees are still green by the time of bending, the initial step of heating and wetting may be avoided with the final heating step accomplishing both the setting of the desired configuration as well as destroying any eggs or insects within the trees.
The prior method of bending dry poles harvested in the dormant state includes use of a fixture for holding a plurality of dry poles arranged in parallel fashion. The fixture includes a single rod which extends perpendicularly across the dry poles with the opposite ends of the rod fastened to the fixture thereby bending the poles. In the event, the dry poles have different diameters then the rod will bend the poles to different curvatures thereby preventing uniformity. The fixture disclosed herein eliminates this disadvantage.
The prior art includes a variety of tools for bending wood to different desired configurations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 360,848 and 361,123 disclose heating and bending wood for use in production of a violin case, whereas U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,371 discloses a jig for bending a hockey stick blade to the desired configuration. U.S. Pat. No. 2,081,638 discloses a technique of forming a rounded corner in a sheet of wood, whereas U.S. Pat. No. 3,003,204 discloses technique particularly useful with corrugated wood laminate. U.S. Pat. No. 1,994,607 discloses a process of shaping green wood by removing moisture therefrom through the application of electrical potential across the opposite sides of the wood. U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,156 discloses a method and apparatus for shaping wood materials, wherein the wood is first saturated with water and then microwave irradiation is used for the heating stage.
In my parent patent application I disclose a holding fixture, wherein the opposite ends of the pole are held relatively fixed in the fixture, whereas an external force is applied to the center portion of the wood forcing the pole to the desired bent configuration. Disclosed herein is a further variation which achieves the same result but by the reverse process of holding the center portion of the pole in a relatively fixed position, whereas an external force is applied to the opposite ends of the pole, bending the pole to the desired configuration while held in the fixture.
I have further discovered that my invention is particularly useful in allowing trees to be harvested during the warm growing season so long as the harvested wood is heated in a kiln subsequent to the harvesting step but during the warm growing season to destroy the living things, such as the powder post beetle located within the pole. Previously, trees have been harvested during the winter for fear that the eggs within a tree harvested during the summer will hatch, thereby loosening the bark from the pole. I have discovered that the trees may be harvested during the summer if they are fairly soon after harvesting heated in the kiln to kill all beetle eggs and all other living things within the pole. The poles may then be stored to be subsequently used in either a bent or unbent configuration. In the event the poles are to be utilized in a bent configuration then the harvested summer poles may be inserted in the fixture disclosed herein at anytime during the year, including the winter season and bent to the final configuration.